While high-profile train derailments and collisions at intersections draw the most attention, the deadliest problem on America’s rail system can go unnoticed.
According to reports from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), suicides accounted for less than 30 percent of all rail fatalities in the country over the past decade.
But recent research, backed by multiple industry experts interviewed by DailyMail.com, suggests that the majority of all train-involved deaths in the US are intentional and self-inflicted.
That would mean that rail operators charged with reporting accident incidents to the FRA are incorrectly categorizing hundreds of suicides as accidents each year, including in some cases where the local coroner ruled the death a suicide.
“We’re dealing with a problem that we didn’t properly diagnose,” said Kurt Topel, a rail safety expert who has studied the problem. “And so we’re treating a disease that the patient doesn’t have, and we’re not treating a disease that he does have.”
Federal data (above) claims suicides account for less than 30 percent of all fatal railroad accidents in the country, but experts believe suicides are dramatically undercounted
In 2022, the most recent year with complete data, there were a total of 1,123 deaths on U.S. railroads, including 217 officially listed as suicides, or 19 percent of the total, according to official FRA data.
But in an interview, Topel told DailyMail.com that he believes these figures are wildly inaccurate and that more than half of actual suicides are wrongly labeled as accidental.
In 2022, Topel published a study investigating all Illinois railroad fatalities for 2019, and comparing the official FRA incident reports with local police and coroner reports of each death.
He found that even in some cases where the coroner ultimately ruled the death a suicide, the railroad failed to update its victim report to the FRA.
Another, less common problem he identified is that some deaths that appeared definitively intentional in police reports were labeled “undetermined” by coroners, perhaps out of respect for the family’s sensitivities.
Overall, Topel found that fewer than half of official suicides were correctly reported in the FRA data he checked, and that more than half of all railroad deaths covered in the study were self-inflicted.
These figures are more in line with those in Europe, where officials say suicides account for about 75 percent of all rail fatalities.
Topel said he has been working on additional research into rail deaths in Florida in recent years, and that initial findings support his claim that rail suicides are underreported.
He became passionate about the issue of railroad safety after a personal tragedy in 2011, when his daughter, just 20 years old and a senior at Boston College, was struck and killed by a train.
“The years between 2011 and 2013 are a blur: total devastation,” Topel recalls. “At some point we decided we would find ways to prevent some parents from suffering the same devastation.”
Topel found that fewer than half of official suicides were correctly reported in the FRA data he checked, and that more than half of all railroad deaths in the study were self-inflicted (stock)
Christopher Barkan, a professor at the University of Illinois and director of the school’s Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, called the study “high quality” and told DailyMail.com that it deserves further investigation.
“What needs to be done is an investigation on a much broader scale,” he said, calling on FRA to conduct a rigorous audit of fatality data.
“The shocking part (to me) of Kurt’s analysis is that in some cases a subsequent finding of suicide by the coroner or medical examiner does not result in an amended record being reported to the Federal Railroad Administration,” said Ian Savage, professor of economics at Northwestern University. , who studies rail safety, in an email.
Why are rail suicides undercounted in the US?
Year-round rail fatalities data for 2023, recently released by the FRA, illustrates some problems with the way deaths are reported.
Typically, any death that occurs outside an at-grade intersection is automatically initially listed as a “violator,” a category that also includes people affected while walking along the tracks or attempting to cross them outside a designated intersection.
If a local coroner later rules the death a suicide, the railroad operator is supposed to go back and update the FRA incident report with the finding, at which point the death is confusingly removed from the “total” number of deaths and added to a separate ledger for suicides. .
But a coroner’s ruling can take many months, delaying reclassification.
So for 2023, it currently appears that of all 1,183 rail deaths, only 14 percent were suicides, compared to the average of 24 percent reported between 2014 and 2022.
Over time, as some deaths are reclassified in 2023, the total will remain the same, but the share counted as suicides will rise, likely to be in line with recent years.
But Topel’s research shows that many deaths ultimately ruled suicides by coroners, whether due to carelessness or flawed process, are never updated in the FRA count.
While train drivers often have definitive insights into whether someone intended to be hit by their trains, railroads insist their hands are tied in quickly labeling deaths as suicides.
A spokesperson for Union Pacific, one of the nation’s largest railroads, told DailyMail.com in a statement: “Union Pacific reports suicides to the Federal Railroad Administration when we have proper documentation from a government official.”
The statement added: “Under Federal Railroad Administration rules, only a government official, such as a coroner, can determine that a death is a suicide, which in some jurisdictions can take up to a year before an official ruling is received.
“Union Pacific is committed to safety and suicide prevention by keeping intruders off our highways and over 32,000 miles of track.”
Topel told DailyMail.com that he believes official figures are wildly inaccurate and that more than half of actual suicides are wrongly labeled as accidental
National passenger rail service Amtrak declined to immediately comment, while BNSF Railway, the largest U.S. railroad by track miles, referred questions to an industry group, the Association of American Railroads.
“Deadly trespasses and fatal suicides remain an ongoing problem on the nation’s railroads,” an AAR spokeswoman said in a statement, noting that “coroners, not the railroads, are ultimately responsible” for determining suicides at railway fatalities.
The FRA did not respond to DailyMail.com requests for comment.
Experts say accurately understanding whether most train deaths are accidental or self-inflicted is critical to tackling the problem and reducing deaths.
“These are two very different phenomena and require very different corrective and preventive actions, so that’s why it’s important,” Barkan said.
He noted that America’s railroads have generally become much safer over the past three decades, with fewer derailments and deaths at intersections.
The only exception to the trend is the number of deaths among ‘offenders’, which has remained stable in recent decades and has seen little improvement.
Topel notes that some of the measures that could be effective in reducing accidental deaths, such as large warnings that remind people of the fatal imminent danger, could actually worsen the problem of suicide.
‘You have to educate those who are not aware of the danger. For those who do (who want to harm themselves), you probably don’t want to remind them of the numbers,” he said.
He noted that most rail safety initiatives focus on raising awareness of the dangers of trains, under the assumption that most rail deaths are accidents.
“I actually think not only does it not help, but it actually hurts,” he said.
For confidential support, call or text the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.